This blog is Pastor Jay's weekly musings about God's Word, God's world, and God's call to our culture. We hope they encourage, challenge, and inform you. Sign up to recieve them in your email.
The Christian world has been stirred up by a particular question Pastor Allister Begg answered on a radio broadcast that was recorded on September 1, 2023. In that interview Begg recounted counsel he gave to a grandmother about a grandson's transgender wedding. Begg said because the grandson knew the grandmother's opposing position on this kind of wedding, she should still...
Keep ReadingA rose by any other name would smell as sweet, Juliet tells us in the famous Shakespearian play. But roses aren't made in the image of God. Names don't really matter when it comes to plants, and that is why there are some really fun ones. Begonia Darthvadariana was the name given to a dark-leaved begonia. But names given to eternal beings who stand as the pinnacle of God's...
Keep ReadingLast week the Respect for Marriage Act was passed by the Senate. While profoundly disappointing, it is not surprising. What is somewhat surprising is the case being made to support this. It is a case we have heard before. In the 1980's, Governor Mario Cuomo of New York made the case that a person could be personally and privately against abortion, but still be publicly an...
Keep ReadingSchools have always followed wherever the gospel goes. Schools meet needs that arise from gospel compulsions. The gospel compels us to know God more and thus learning to read allows us to read his holy Word. The gospel compels us to glorify God and we can do that better when we see his world accurately, which history and science allows. The gospel compels us to love our fa...
Keep ReadingThere is a growing movement within Christendom to have an acceptance of homosexuality while still holding to historical Christian sexual ethics. The Revoice Conference in 2018 was a significant step in advancing what are being called Side B Christians. Side A Christians fully embrace all tenets of LGBTQ practices, while Side B Christians see marriage as only between a man ...
Keep ReadingBack in 2015, we all braced for the fallout from the Supreme Court Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage. In terms of moral revolutions things have been happening at warp speed, and that decision made it seem like things were going to instantly implode. Instant implosion did not happen. Like most things on a national scale, the fallout was real but not imm...
Keep ReadingWe have been hearing the phrase "right side of history" for years now. It has been the mantra of the progressive left so much so that it has become worn out and used less and less. However, it is still undergirding the thinking of the revolutionaries of our day. This showed up again in a recent article in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof entitled Will We Choose The...
Keep ReadingIn my last post Did the Church Get it Wrong on Gay People?, where I addressed the recent article in USA Today that affirmed that very question, I made the recommendation that every Christian today needs to be able to answer a frequent challenge from the LGBT community. That challenge goes like this, "Since the Old Testament has laws you do not obey, such as certain die...
Keep ReadingOn Monday April 29th, USA Today published an opinion piece entitled American Churches Must Reject Literalism and Admit We Got It Wrong on Gay People. You can read it here. The main point of the author, Oliver Thomas, is captured well in the subtitle, "Churches will continue hemorrhaging members until we face the truth: Being a faithful Christian does not mean accepti...
Keep ReadingTo the dismay of the LGBT community, keyboards only have 26 letters. But if divine authority won't hold you back, neither will a 26 letter keyboard. The solution is the + key. The + key is the ticket to so-called personal fulfillment and you being you. The problem with this is that chaos always comes back on itself. Contradictions cut the knees out from an argumen...
Keep ReadingLast week the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, in conjunction with many other leading biblical evangelicals, released a document called the Nashville statement. This statement upheld the historic Christian position on the biblical teaching of human sexuality and marriage. You can read it here. This statement, composed of a preamble, 14 affirm/deny articles, and...
Keep ReadingThe ubiquitous LGBT mantra "Born that way" is finally getting dumped in the landfill of scientific fiction. Bible teachers have been trying to do that for years, and the sexual revolution is now doing it for us. What has caused the reversal? Think of it like this. Bikes are wonderful vehicles. But do you know what bicycles are terrible at? They make for terrible tow-tru...
Keep ReadingThe moral revolution continues to speed along with these two commitments: "leave-no-stone-unturned" and "take-no-prisoners." The latest example is the highly anticipated live-action movie Beauty and the Beast. The entertainment industry surrendered to this moral revolution long ago. But the newest twist is Hollywood's offering of a beloved children's story on the altar o...
Keep Reading"Discrimination" has become one of the great taboos of our culture. Dropping this word upon someone is the ultimate insult that is expected to make a person fall over themselves in apologies. Historically, discrimination was the go-to word for prejudices perpetuated against ethnic minorities. More recently, the LGBT community has had almost total success in getting th...
Keep ReadingUnintended consequences are the thorn in the side of every good intention. Simply because intentions are good, does not mean the idea is good. I have heard of people trying to raise raccoons, only to be mauled by them. George Washington died in large part due to bloodletting, which was a standard medical practice of the day. These and countless other activities have led ...
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